ADDISON, Texas — Every day, the clock is ticking for India.
The country, dealing with a spiraling COVID outbreak, is in desperate need of equipment, oxygen and vaccines.
Many local organizations from the North Texas Indian community are working as fast they can to ship supplies to India.
Nonprofit Ethne is working to get supplies to the more rural areas, home to people who can’t afford going to a hospital.
For Ethne's founder, Dalton Divakaran, COVID-19 has hit close to home. His 37-year-old sister, a wife and mother of two young girls, is hospitalized with the coronavirus at a hospital in Hyderabad, India.
Divakaran, who lives in Carrollton, said she was rushed to the hospital when her condition worsened.
“There is no bed available," he added. "There are eighteen to twenty patients in front of her.”
As his sister is slowly on the road to recovery, thousands of families across India are in dire need.
The infection rate is up to 400,000 new cases a day.
“People are dying every second; the streets are filled with patients,” said Divakaran.
Divakaran, one of the founders of Ethne, said his nonprofit is feverishly working to send ventilators and supplies to India’s migrant population.
“They would just die where they’re living,” said Divakaran.
There are about 1,500 ventilators sitting in an Addison warehouse. The owner of Automedx tells us that they’ve been working with local organizations to get them shipped to India.
“It’s developed to be used in the battlefield,” said James Evans, one of the owners of Automedx.
Evans said it took 5 years for Automedx to develop the ventilators, and they feel good knowing they’re saving lives.
Now, the company is working pack conversion adapters so the ventilators can be used in India.
“In times like this when you can help others, it makes it worth it. I remember one of our ventilators went to an Afghanistan and it helped save a man’s life. It felt good knowing he went to home to family, and kids after what he went through,” said Evans.
Divakaran said his team is on the ground, making sure the supplies are being sent those who can’t even afford food or water.
“Having their next meal, hope in terms of basic necessity, oxygen to breath. We are all in it together,” said Divakaran.
If you would like to help the Ethne organization, go here to donate.